In general, tablet auto-packaging apparatuses may be apparatuses for simultaneously or independently auto-packaging tablets accommodated in a tablet cassette and tables that are not capable of being accommodated in the tablet cassette for single dosage.
Here, a large amount of tablets accommodated in the tablet cassette may be stored at a predetermined position within a tablet auto-packing apparatus and then automatically dispensed as necessary. However, tablets, that are not capable of being accommodated in the tablet cassette, may be automatically dispensed into a separate tray by mounting the separate tray into the tablet auto-packing apparatus after the tray used for dispensing tablets is separately prepared whenever the tablets are needed.
Thus, it may be necessary to manually pre-dispense the tablets, which are not capable of being accommodated in the tablet cassette, into a tray by a user such as pharmacists. That is to say, a process for manually dispensing tablets, which are not capable of being accommodated in the tablet cassette, among tablets written on a prescription into the tray is necessarily required.
When the manual dispensing process as described above is completed, the user such as pharmacists has to check the tablets dispensed into the tray one by one. Then, if it is determined that the dispensing is normal after the checking, the tray may be inserted into the tablet auto-packaging apparatus to operate the tablet auto-packaging, thereby supplying and packing the tablets within the tablet cassette and the tablets dispensed into the tray for single dosage.
Here, the dispensing of the tablets into the tray may be manually realized by the user such as the pharmacists as described above. However, the accuracy in dispensing may be essentially reduced on characteristics of the manual action.
Thus, even though the dispensing of the tablets into the tray is completed, an additional checking process may be necessarily required to reduce work efficiency.
Also, even though the user such as the pharmacists checks whether the tablets are accurately dispensed, it may be difficult to accurately obverse the dispensing of the tablets through a naked eye of the user. Thus, the smallest mistake in dispensing could lead to a serious problem, resulting in damaging patient healthy due to tablet dosing errors.
Also, when the tablets that are not capable of being accommodated in the tablet cassette are manually dispensed into the tray, dusts generated by the tablets due to the repeated usage of the apparatus may remain in the apparatus.
When other tablets are dispensed, the dusts have to be frequently removed to prevent the dusts from being mixed with other tablets. Thus, a separate cleaning process may be required. However, this cleaning process may be more trouble to deteriorate efficiency in work.
Thus, when the tablets are manually dispensed into the tray, studies for improving accuracy in dispensing to realize packing of the tablets that coincide with patient's prescription and for effectively removing the dusts to maximize work efficiency are urgently necessary.